April 16, 2005: Red Ink Update

I got several interesting responses to the "no more red ink" story . . . Names withheld, of course. A couple of the best ones:

"My wife's school district refused to publish the names of honor roll students because it would make the non-honor roll students feel bad."

Or, for another approach, "The school has special awards, but every student has to receive a special award and they make up awards. [They] modified their honor roll rules: (1) Only students with a 3.3 GPA or higher are honor roll students. (2) All students with a 3.25-3.29 GPA will be rounded
up to 3.3."

And I was sent a link to this very interesting Scientific American article which systematically examines and dismisses a number of the claims of the cult of self-esteem, concluding ". . . we have found little to indicate that indiscriminately promoting self-esteem in today's children or adults, just for being themselves, offers society any compensatory benefits beyond the seductive pleasure it brings to those engaged in the exercise."-- Steve Jackson